Midgame Hatred: The Last Remnant
I have, once more, found my way onto disk two of The Last Remnant. As I’m about to spend the next few days killing off the series of stronghold boss fights, I figure now is as good a time as any to rant about my frustrations with this game.
To get started, I will say that even with its more frustrating technical flaws (installing to the hard drive was pretty much required to prevent the game from lagging every round), the game is pretty awesome.
That is, of course, until you have to fight your first major boss battle. Unless you’ve taken the time to play with every available formation and combination of units in those formations (there are numerous combinations, and I haven’t begun to touch them), you are likely to find this game to be the new source of your abusive consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Thus far, the story is brilliant, and there are numerous side-quests to complete in order to unlock even more formations, receive new gear, and make more coin.
It is the battle system that makes me love this game. Throw out your typical RPG “group of heroes vs. group of monsters” style of play. In The Last Remnant you face off against practical armies of baddies, which is where my greatest source of frustration is as well. The battles can last FOREVER, and, depending on the boss, can end with a single round of unfortunate events. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, if the boss eliminated you in just a couple of rounds. But when you are on round 26 of a boss fight, and they use their “now it’s time to fuck you in the ass with a splintered broomstick” skill and eliminates your entire force, it is more than a little frustrating.
Anyway, seeing as it is now the ass-crack of morning, I’m going to take a few hours for sleeping before drinking and nachos and football.
